Tips for using PAST Tenses in IELTS Speaking | Keith's Grammar Guides

hooray i did it or i was doing it which one past simple or past continuous well in this video i'm going to show you how to use use both the past simple and the past continuous in ielts speaking are you ready let's do it [Music] hi guys it's keith from the keith speaking academy now listen recently i did a video about the four present tenses we looked at present simple present continuous present perfect tenses and if you haven't seen it go up here and watch those videos today though we're going all the way back into the past past simple or simple past and past continuous what's the difference how do we use them in ielts speaking well stick with me and i'm going to show you how we do it just to remind you if you haven't joined the facebook group yet keith's ielts mastermind community for ielts speaking follow the link below come and join us lots of activity happening interesting sharing loads of ideas and motivation to boot so let's go back to the past so when it comes to the past there are with the past simple right there are four things we can look at we're going to look at states in the past completed actions and past habits and also imaginary things in the present or the future so first of all let's look at the first one here um states in the past and this is also kind of continuous activities or actions in the past so we're talking about live living i live in spain but i lived in england is a state it was a state in the past or a continuous action for example i went to university at sheffield i went to university for three years so that went is not i went to the university once and then came home no i i went there every day for three years it was a continuous action similar to a state right i went to university i worked in malaysia for three years same idea it was a continuous action going to work over a period of time so we use the past for these typical states right so let's have a quick look at the form here of the past simple we have the subject plus the verb with ed if it's regular okay so for example i lived in manchester when i was young i lived edie i lived in manchester if it's irregular of course you have the subject plus the irregular verb and there is a list you can get of all the irregular verbs so for example to go went i went to school in oldham it's true so that's the positive looking at the negative we just take the subject plus did not plus the verb right if it's regular the did not we often contract especially when speaking so it becomes didn't didn't don't didn't i didn't live in london when i was a child i didn't live often when we have the the the verb after didn't the ter is softer i didn't live rather than saying i didn't live which is a bit difficult we kind of softened the tea we almost dropped the tea i didn't live i didn't live okay so it's not plosive i didn't live in london when i was a child i lived in manchester and of course it's the same even for the irregular verbs right so for example go went i didn't go to school in london same idea the t is not it's dropped but it's kind of not plosive so it's not her it's i didn't go i didn't go so you can't hear the t right i didn't go to school in london i went to school in manchester right okay what about you where did you go to school right and where did you live as a child excellent good now let's have a look at the question so the basic questions the yes no questions it's did plus the subject i you me she they plus the verb whether it's regular or irregular right so did you live not did you lift no did you live in london when you were a child did you go to school in england okay did plus the subject plus the verb in the infinitive right did you go did you live if we're looking at the w questions the which way which way no which why where when who how although it's a h it's still known as a w question then it's the question word like where did plus a subject plus the verb where did you go what did you do okay be careful it's not what did you did no not where did you went no no no no where did you plus the verb where did you go what did you do okay great so that's the format let's get into very briefly pronunciation right now this is important because when you're writing it's easy right this the simple past verb regular verbs you add e d right or d however pronunciation of that ed has three different ways it can be right so for example lived i lived in manchester i lived in manchester okay so when the the end of the verb the consonant is voiced then the d is used and it's very very soft i lived in manchester however when the last consonant of the the verb is unvoiced like work work you can touch your throat it's not voiced work then it's a sound i worked i worked in malaysia i worked in malaysia can you say that i worked i worked in i worked in malaysia and you i lived in manchester and you as a child right we're talking in the past and the last one is if the verb ends in the the d sound or a t sound then for example study i studied i studied hard attend attended okay i studied in england did i study hard yeah i studied quite hard so remember three different sounds for the simple past regular verbs let's look more at the use right so as we mentioned um we can use the past when talking about states about living working studying so for example if you're talking about childhood right or talking about study at university or past jobs all of these we can use the simple best talking about childhood tell me about your childhood come and lie down on the couch tell me about your childhood okay i lived well i might say right i lived in manchester as a kid um i went to a nice school actually um so i'd say all in all i had quite a happy childhood right lived went had just using the simple past what about university tell me about your university years i went to uni in sheffield where i studied french right i lived in student digs for the first year and then after that i rented a flat went studied lived rented right so we're using simple best tell me about your university studies what about jobs tell me about a past job you had hmm well i worked as a waiter when i left uni believe it or not and then i went on to get a job in a bank oh it was ever so boring right worked went was simple past talking about past jobs okay so these are all states let's move on [Music] so the second use of the simple past is for completed actions in finished time right so finish time is a time that's finished in the past for example yesterday last night two days ago at five o'clock yesterday all of these are finished time periods and the action you did there would be the simple best right for example i watched television after dinner last night it's true actually after dinner i sat down and i watched television it was really good there was a great program about ah so i won't go on but simple past right now we can use this really effectively in two different areas the first one is something called the pattern of three and the pattern of three is very very common in english in natural spoken conversation we give three actions in the past one after the other and often we drop the subject we in the second and the third so for example i got up went to the bar and ordered a drink so the eye disappears after the first one it's an ellipsis right i got up went to the bar and ordered a drink and it just has a very natural rhythm and it's hugely common and it's it's a really good way of telling stories especially in ielts speaking part two to have this idea of i did this i did that and did that right i woke up got dressed and went to work it's really effective pattern of three here's an example right let's say there's a part two question about talk about a photo you took okay so i was on mount blanc right the view was out of this world so i took out my camera took a selfie of me on the mountain and shared it with my friends on instagram you get it here i took out my camera took a selfie and shared it pattern of three really nice now the second bit is about adding details right and we use this after the present perfect again a very very common pattern very effective present perfect to describe a life experience and then adding details we use the simple past right i've been to paris twice i first went there when i was 20. right i have been to paris present perfect i first went there giving extra detail and the time simple past i went there when i was 20. very common structure let's see how we can use that in ielts speaking for example you may get a part 2 question to talk about a book a book you like or a book you found interesting you might say i've read i've read many personal development books but last week i read one that really blew my mind it was the one thing gary keller brilliant book go and check it out but i have read many books last week i read one that blew my mind blew my mind just means really impressed me right was had a really good impression on me great so you can see how with this talking about your experiences adding detail simple past brilliant the third way of using the simple past is to talk about past habits right when i was a child what were my past habits well i played football every week i went to painting class i went to tennis class quite often i did this and i did that right so simple past i played football every week as a child it's a past habit you'll remember in other videos we've talked about used to and would but also the simple past for past habits now this is really good for the part one questions about did you do something something as a child and you're talking in the past but you can be looking at past habits right for example questions like did you go on picnics as a child did you take art classes as a child well you might say yes we went on picnics most weekends in the summer we went on picnics most weekends in the summer that repeated habit or the art classes i studied art class at school we had class every friday repeated habit we had class every friday great very simple very effective the last and fourth one is about imaginary things why do i do that i don't know so i'm talking about wishes here right when you wish something were different you're imagining now or in the future with wish we use the simple past i wish i had a lot of money i wish i had a new car i wish i had i don't know i wish i had a beautiful house in the countryside i wish i had really important but this is really nice right for example i wish you were here ah i wish my family could come and stay with me can could i wish my family could come and stay with me but they can't because of the pandemic okay so it's very nice i think sometimes at the end of part two stories or when you're doing part two you can often finish with a wish maybe you're talking about this and that and that a beautiful house that you an ideal house you would like to have and i wish i had a house in the countryside right simple past but it's a really good structure i wish i had i wish i could a wish about the present or the future that's it holy moly that's the end of the past simple let's move on now to look at the past continuous okay so there are probably three main ways we can use this right story setting you know like telling a story once upon a time in a land far far away many years ago there was a princess and she was sitting in the tower waiting for the prince to come of course you're not going to tell that kind of story in ielts speaking but that said in part two there is a chance to tell anecdotes and stories this will be useful number two is the guys sorry can you get the door right number two is here the past continuous for interrupted guys come on i'm trying to make a video yeah all right ah so it's the past continuous for something that we call the i know it's the postman can you just answer the door i'm trying to work here number two is interrupted activity i was trying to teach you and they interrupted me hmm right number three is past habits now you've got to say hang on keith you said past habits was the past simple well yes it was but also and this is the beauty of english right the past continuous can be used right you have different um tenses different tools you can use to create your meaning great so those are the three so let's look now at the the format of how we make the past continuous by the way do you like how i magically turned on the light so the past continuous we've got right i he or she plus was plus the verb in the gerund the ing so for example i was waiting for the bus he was waiting for the train she was waiting for the plane right notice there was is normally a weak form because we don't normally stress it right i not was but was i was waiting try that i was waiting she was waiting for the bus nice so there's that big stress on the waiting she was waiting excellent good that's i he she but if it's we you or they were w-e-r-e were plus the verb in the gerund the ing right they were waiting for me they were waiting for me notice again the were is weak usually because we stress the next word waiting they were they were waiting they were waiting they were waiting for me try we were waiting for them nice great that's the form of course in the negative we just put the subject i he or she plus the plus was not plus the gerund right i was not waiting however spo speaking we normally contract was not to wasn't i wasn't waiting try that i wasn't waiting i wasn't waiting for the train honest i wasn't waiting for the train um or we have we you or they plus were not plus the gerund were not becomes weren't weren't they weren't waiting they weren't waiting so you'll notice again the t at the end often is not plosive so instead of they weren't waiting it's they weren't waiting they weren't waiting can you hear the t is almost dropped it's imploded imploded i mean it's not plosive it's not it's just they were they weren't waiting they weren't waiting for the bus we weren't waiting for them can you hear that i hope you can hear that okay let's have a look at the first one story time story setting setting of a story we're talking about giving the setting or the background to a story anecdote an activity right it doesn't have to be once upon a time a whole story like shrek it can be just even a sentence right it was raining outside it was raining outside so i decided to stay at home as simple as that it was raining outside is giving the background what's happening and then i decided to stay at home or the sun was shining i decided to go out right or the pandemic was still going on and it's giving you the background to the story right and very often as i mentioned it's followed then by the simple past it was raining outside so i decided to stay at home the pandemic was still going on but i needed to travel back home or the pandemic was still going on but i needed to travel abroad was going on here with still right was still going on needed i needed to travel abroad so that is a common structure right you've got the background in the past continuous and then next the simple past even in one sentence right doesn't have to be a big fancy story okay now how can we use this particularly with some ielts questions well let's take a couple of examples and i'm thinking particularly in part two here imagine there's a question describe a conversation that you heard right as part of your answer you may want to give a setting and then say what happened so you might say i was attending a conference on education and i was really looking forward to it but it turned out that the main speaker was really boring right can you see i was attending that's the background i was looking forward to it is also part of the background and then boom what happened the main speaker turned out or it turned out that or the main speaker turned out to be boring right so the turned out is the past turnout just means in the end the result was the main speaker was boring so that's very simple part that's not your whole answer right for part two but giving the background maybe at the beginning of your answer this could be a nice way to use it what about this question describe a time you won something maybe a race or a competition maybe right again you could say well i was taking part in the school sports day when i was a kid and i ran in two races and i won both of them i was taking part it's the background and then what happened bum i ran in two races and i won both of them okay so again you've got the past continuous followed by the simple past very typical nice ways to maybe begin these answers okay okey dokey let's move on to the next one now this one is the interrupted activity so basically we use the past continuous to describe an activity in process and at some point boom there's a cut or an interruption and the second activity happens right but of course it's in the past so imagine if you will it was raining outside imagine you were waiting for the bus right five minutes ten minutes and you're standing there waiting for the bus and you see tom and you say oh hello tom right so i was waiting for the bus when i saw tom simple as that i was waiting for the bus and then this second activity interrupts or cuts in oh i saw tom right whilst i was waiting for the bus i saw my friend tom continuous past simple another common structure right how to use them together so let me show you how you can use this again the interrupted activity in the same questions right imagine a part two describe a conversation you heard remember i gave you the background talking about the conference and in the end the speaker was really boring right but here we could say as i was taking my seat the main speaker got up on the stage and began right as i was taking my seat i'm in the process of sitting down at that time boom the main speaker got up and began speaking past continuous simple past very simple and i'm developing my answer here let me show you the similar thing right for the other question so remember describe a time when you won something i've told you a bit about the story the background and then i can come in and say when they were giving me the medals my mum took several photos when they were giving me the medals in the process at the same time boom my mom took several photos because she was ever so proud of me winning the races so a similar thing right the same structure were giving mum took several photos great let's move on to the third and final situation now the third point is past habit and you are quite right we also use the simple past for past habit right i played football every weekend when i was a kid right and that's quite specific but when we're being more general we use the past continuous with the adverb always right i was always playing with computers as a kid i was always playing football as a kid so it's not specific time when you did it but just generally and the use of always i was always doing that i was always arguing with my brother right when we were growing up together we were always arguing with each other typical brotherly fighting right so it's a habit and it's always so the past continuous with always so this is something you could use talking about your childhood about past jobs about university studies in the past right for example at university i was always studying late into the night i was always burning the midnight oil right that's burning the midnight oil working late or studying late at night i was always studying late at night it's neither good nor bad it's neutral but it's great to describe a past habit going back to one of the part two questions describe a time you won something right so we've given the background and the setting we gave an interrupted activity example also here you could say something like as a kid i was always racing everywhere here and there so it's no surprise i won the race on sports day right you're giving a further background talking in the past as a kid i was always racing or running everywhere right nice past habit so there you've got it the past continuous for setting or giving the background talking about interrupted activities and also past habits with always fantastic so that's it we've seen today how you can use the past simple and the past continuous in different contexts and often together right it's not one or the other we often use them together and i hope you can see how you can do that for different questions um for the ielts speaking test excellent great if you want to know more about grammar mistakes then do watch this video up here which tells you the top five grammar mistakes that students are making in ielts speaking keep your eyes open keep your eyes peeled i'll be doing a few more grammar videos to help you with ielts speaking in the near future in the meantime if you've enjoyed this please do like it turn on the notifications as you subscribe for the video and go ahead and watch some more to improve your grammar for ielts speaking take care my friends as always it's a pleasure bye

Channel: English Speaking Success

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Keywords: ielts speaking, ielts speaking success, ielts keith, ielts speaking 2020, ielts speaking grammar tips, ielts speaking grammar, ielts grammar lessons for beginners, ielts grammar lessons, ielts past simple, ielts past continuous, tenses past simple, tenses past continuous tense, tenses used in ielts speaking, past tenses in english grammar, past tense, simple past tense, past continuous tense, past continuous and past simple, past continuous

Id: 0A4sjPj0LZo

Length: 32min 0sec (1920 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 20 2020